The Good
Jrue Holiday continues to be a baller. The 19-year-old added Mo Williams to his list of point guards who "Kissed The Baby" during his three December starts.
- Russell Westbrook (Dec.2) 1-11 from the floor.
- Monta Ellis (Dec.14) 3-14 from the floor.
- Mo Williams (Tonight) 2-8 from the floor.
In the past three games Thaddeus Young has three double-doubles. In the 183 games prior to this stretch he had three total. My two biggest criticisms of Thad have always been defense and rebounding. His offense will come, and he'll eventually average 20 PPG, but averaging four rebounds a game isn't going to cut it. For someone who plays significant minutes at power forward, Thad needed to rebound for his team to be successful. How does 35 boards in the past three games sound? Message receieved. The only difference has been Thad's effort, but it's been a huge difference. If he keeps this up I see a 20-10 season is in his future. Oh by the way, he's 21 years old.
For those of you scoring at home, that's two future studs at the ripe ages of 19 and 21.
As a Sixers fan, I was pretty happy with what I saw tonight as far as development is concerned. The four guys I'm interested in (Jrue, Andre, Thad, Speights) all played pretty well, and showed glimpses of a possibly bright future for the franchise. Speights was somewhat rusty in his return from injury -- as expected -- but still managed to score 14 off the bench. I don't consider him a stud like Holiday, Thad or Andre, but still a big part of the team's future. Andre was Andre. I still cringe every time he takes a jumper, but once a legit franchise player comes to town (John Wall), Andre will become Robin instead of Batman where he's much better suited, in my opinion.
Just remember, as long as Eddie Jordan is the head coach the scoreboard doesn't reflect wins and losses, the development of the young guys does.
The Bad
Speaking of Eddie Jordan, his coaching skillz lost the Sixers another game. He's the basketball equivalent of a rooster-block. Just when things start to look promising and the players say to themselves, "Let's seal the deal!", he pulls super-rookie Jrue Holiday for Billy Green. Not only did he pull his one of his best defenders/facilitators for free-firing, no defense Green, he took Iguodala off LeBron and gave Green the assignment of Queen James. Really? You decide to put Bill Green, of all people, on LeBron James to end a game? If I was a conspiracy theorist, I'd accuse EJ of trying to lose the game. Maybe he's on the John Wall bandwagon? Yes, the Sixers were already losing when Jordan made the switch, but who says the Sixers couldn't have gotten a couple stops with Jrue on Mo and Andre on LeBron? It's not like they were down 10. It was a two possession game, Sixers ball, and 2 minutes and change. Alas. The move perfectly sums up the Eddie Jordan era.
If you're into the +/- stat, Allen Iverson was the worst Sixer with a -11 tonight. Don't worry, it was strictly a basketball decision.